Colossus Systems of Systems Xploration Grand Challenge
System of Systems Xploration Grand Challenge awaits, ready to get hands on?
Duration: February – August 2025 (extensions are possible)
Target audience: BSc, M.Sc and Ph.D students
University Registration deadline: February 15th
Student teams finalize the sign-up for the challenge but the university sign-up gives insight to challenge participation and mailing list (for challenge updates and discussions). It also allows universities to contact the challenge committee directly.
Ever wanted to curate and design a fleet of wildfire fighting aircraft? From detection to suppression, teams will be given the chance to tackle a challenging System of Systems problem. Put your engineering skills and ingenuity to the test with the SoS Xploration Grand Challenge.
Develop creative solutions to an open-ended problem where there is no “one size fits all” and multiple, disparate solutions are possible!


Design aircraft, configure fleets and enhance the COLOSSUS [1] System of Systems (SoS) in a set of 3 scenarios, ranging from an island in Greece, to the French Alps and Californian countryside. Explore, test and validate aerial wildfire fighting aircraft concepts with a provided toolkit where each scenario is defined. The goal is to:
REQUIRED
- Conceptually design an/ multiple aircraft (airplane, rotorcraft, lighter-than-air vehicle or any other potential flying architecture) based on a set of constraints
- Test and Optimize the aircraft within the COLOSSUS simulation toolkit
PICK (MINIMUM 1) of the following (FURTHER ADDITIONS GIVE BONUS POINTS)*:
- Expand the simulation by improving the suppression tactics and operational strategy of the aircraft and associated systems in the wildfire fighting effort
- Further develop the SoS by considering new system implementations (fire monitoring/ detection systems, inter-agent communication, firefighting boats, etc.)
[1] P. S. Prakash, N. Naeem, K. Amadori, G. Donelli, J. Akbari, F. Nicolosi, L. K. Franzén, M. Ruocco, T. Lefebvre e B. Nagel, “COLOSSUS EU Project – Collaborative SoS Exploration of Aviation Products, Services and Business Models: Overview and Approach”, in Proceedings of the 34th Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS), Firenze, Italia, 2024.
*Picking multiple of the same bullet point still count as additional developments (developing fire monitoring/ detection systems AND inter-agent communication will be considered as 2 additional features for example).
To aid in exploring the design space and navigating to a solution, an objective function which considers the simulation outputs (burnt area, acquisition and operational costs, etc.) will be provided alongside the COLOSSUS simulation toolkit itself. Finding a trade-off between operational effectiveness and cost will be key in designing the aircraft and configuring the fleet/ operations. The simulation is Python based, so coding knowledge is highly recommended, but onboarding videos, guides and live support calls will also be provided, promoting hands-on experience!
Team composition will be based on a 10-point system:
- Bachelor students = 1 point
- Master students = 2 points
- PhD students = 3 points
Any composition of the above is allowed so long as the teams’ composition does not exceed 10 points.
Assessment will be done through a report (maximum 50 pages) and a 30 minute presentation, where grading is based on the objective function score, engineering innovation, solution feasibility and extensiveness of performed studies.
Teams will be ranked, with the best teams getting a special prize invitation to partake and present in an EU conference in 2025!`
- Students are expected to have a built-up knowledge base on preliminary/ conceptual aircraft design. They must use this knowledge to derive top level aircraft requirements and preliminary power and fuel consumption values for different flight states. This can also be done via university provided tool. Aircraft takeoff mass is constrained to 25 tons and 2035 technology levels, however any form of aircraft (lighter-than-air, blended wing body, hybrid jetliners, seaplanes, waterbombers) are allowed.
- Students are expected to be able to derive a preliminary cost of their aircraft (they can use empirical relations and online resources)
- Students must have a sufficient knowledge of Python programming as the toolkit provided by DLR is Python based.
- Students are expected to learn about system of systems and are encouraged to do so via professors or online education.
- We will provide the toolkit itself, in the form of a github repository, upon which students are free to explore and test their aircraft and operational designs
- With the toolkit we will also provide a set of guides on how to use the toolkit, where inputs and outputs are located and suggested areas of code exploration.
- We will act as the direct contact for toolkit related queries, with support calls being hosted routinely.
- Inform students about the challenge (share the flyer and website). Admissions for student teams begin from February 1st and ends at May 1st. From February 1st the website will be changed
- Start planning what content the students may be supported with to further understand SoS and aircraft design oriented for wildfire fighting (not required but useful for students).
Universities Sign Up
Are you interested in the grand challenge? Contact us!
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